Best stats and talents for Mages?

[Regrets1015]

I'm wondering which stats I should dump my points in to get the most out of the mage class? I know stamina is the main one for mages. But where else should I put my points into?

And also offensive skills? I play as a sort of "support" mage. Thus, I find it very helpful to spend a lot of my talent points in healing skills and skills that buff my companions.

But when I have to help deal damage, like being mass attacked. I'm not sure which skills to get. So I pick random stuff, which usually does not go very well for my party even if alistair is tanking.

[LilG]

You should put points into magic/willpower for mages mainly. Also cunning if you want to unlock extra dialogue options, advanced skills & combat tactic slots.

Magic stat affects your spells potency, as well as how much health/mana you get back from using potions & your mental resistance.

Willpower increases the size of your mana pool, each point increases your mana/stamina by 5.

If you want to be a support mage, I'd say stick some points into debuffing/support spells like the entropy line ,then some into healing & enhancements.

The hex,draining , & debilitation spells make a lot of enemies much easier to kill, you could also invest into the blood magic tree for the spell blood wound, which does aoe damage, disables non boss targets & you can cast it without any worry about friendly fire damage.

The downside is that it doesn't work on targets that don't have blood. Demons, Golems & Undead are immune to it. Having blood magic on lets you use your HP instead of mana to cast spells should you run low on mana, but its risky to use.

Offensive skills you can use the ice spells to freeze targets then shatter them with stonefist or crushing prison to disable them while the others hack away. Petrify can also shatter targets for easier kills.
Another option is using manaclash, against mages or demons you can potentially 1 shot them using it, its pretty overpowered.

[Regrets1015]

Originally posted by LilG:

You should put points into magic/willpower for mages mainly. Also cunning if you want to unlock extra dialogue options, advanced skills & combat tactic slots.

Magic stat affects your spells potency, as well as how much health/mana you get back from using potions & your mental resistance.

Willpower increases the size of your mana pool, each point increases your mana/stamina by 5.

If you want to be a support mage, I'd say stick some points into debuffing/support spells like the entropy line ,then some into healing & enhancements.

The hex,draining , & debilitation spells make a lot of enemies much easier to kill, you could also invest into the blood magic tree for the spell blood wound, which does aoe damage, disables non boss targets & you can cast it without any worry about friendly fire damage.

The downside is that it doesn't work on targets that don't have blood. Demons, Golems & Undead are immune to it. Having blood magic on lets you use your HP instead of mana to cast spells should you run low on mana, but its risky to use.

Offensive skills you can use the ice spells to freeze targets then shatter them with stonefist or crushing prison to disable them while the others hack away. Petrify can also shatter targets for easier kills.
Another option is using manaclash, against mages or demons you can potentially 1 shot them using it, its pretty overpowered.

Thanks for the tips. i'll give that a try.

[K00lex]

Magic (which converts to Spellpower) is key for mages.
Spellpower determines damage output and duration of spells.
Wear equipment to increase Magic and/or Spellpower first. Then, Willpower. Maybe Constitution or Dexterity, if you have empty boot or helm slots.
See: http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Spellpower

[Gyrmadet]

be also sure to search EVERYWHERE for the best gear available, and try to match the gear with your "build" (I mean, do not use a physical boosting gear if you are playing a ranged nuker...)

[Regrets1015]

I hear Some of the DLC that are pre-quals to Origins gives you nice gear when you start Origins to make it less painful. Is it worth Playing them?

[Gyrmadet]

Originally posted by GraciousEgg8363:

I hear Some of the DLC that are pre-quals to Origins gives you nice gear when you start Origins to make it less painful. Is it worth Playing them?

yes but know that you *will not* be able to use that gear right at the beginning because it has crazy high requirements. The best thing you can do is to wait until Bodahn joins you at the Camp and immediately sell everything to him, then buy it back when you meet the requirements. By that time you will have plenty of money, and in between you will have an high pool of gold to spend to buy good equipment for all your characters.

[K00lex]

The DLCs items are overpowered. Even the in-game DLCs, from Warden's Keep, Village of Honnleath, or Return to Ostagar... Try not to use them, unless you roleplay and come up with a reason to acquire them, such as Warden Commander's or Cailan's Armor. ;-)

[talemore]

Magic only.

Mage in Dragon age Origins is an incredible boring class compared to all other classes who either need strength or dexterity to increase their damage. The Mages don't have a spellpower on more than one attribute and so will never need to balance one attribute over the other.

[Banadian Boose]

So normally you wanna go for magic and spellpower, but Ive found doing a strength cont build, while still having mediocre magic of like 25 along with 25 dex so that way you can hit things and cast simple spells like heal or group heal, making your charecter a decent tank with heals, so basically a combat mage running spirit healer and arcane mage